Conventional vehicles generally have a substantially flat, rectangular engine compartment hood pivoted at its rear edge to the cowl structure of the vehicle near the front windshield, and latched at its front edge to the header structure of the vehicle by a remotely releasable hood latch. A resilient mechanism, generally associated with the hinges, is biased so as to pivot the hood initially up slightly upon release of the hood latch, whereupon a manually activated secondary latch releases the hood to be pivoted up farther. The hinge line between the rear edge of the hood and the vehicle cowl is essentially all in a plane, so that the initial hood movement may be simply a slight rotation up. Therefore, the hood latch at the front end of the hood essentially moves straight up and down during this initial movement, and the hood latch may be a relatively simple mechanism, such as a headed pin which fits down within a keeper. It is sometimes desirable to hinge the hood at the header, rather than the cowl, but the hinge line is again essentially all in a plane and the motion of the hood, although reversed, is similar.
In newer and smaller vehicles, it may be desirable and possible to integrate the engine hood and the front fenders. if this is done, the hinge line between the rear edge of the hood-fenders unit and the vehicle will not be all in a plane. It is, of course, possible to hinge the unit at the front edge thereof, since the line between the front of the unit and the header or front bumper is likely to be essentially planar. But if it is desired to open the hood conventionally, then it will be necessary to attach the unit by hinges which rest just beneath the cowl structure of the vehicle, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,606,625, to Paton. However, if it is desired to put the hinges elsewhere, a different system for hingedly supporting the unit will be necessary.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,494,347 to Matthews shows a hinge support for a curved closure over an aircraft engine which uses roller hinges to shift the hinge axis up as the closure is lifted. However, the closure is light and relatively short, and has no structure for guiding or supporting the front edge of the closure.